How to Grill Pizza - What is the Best Way?

Summer is heating up all across the country and around the world. Most of us can’t bear to think about turning our oven on, let alone heat up the kitchen and turn the air conditioning on overdrive in the house. And yet, many of us crave that delicious home-baked pizza taste. The best way to get home-baked taste at home without heating up the kitchen is to use your grill outside. Some folks claim you will get even better taste than from your clean convection oven because the charcoal adds a smoky flavor found only in the deep pit ovens of popular restaurants. 

One of the most popular ways to create a grilled pizza is to use flatbread along with tomato, cheese, and olive oil. The ingredients are simple and, when fresh, can be combined to make a virtual masterpiece. Even if you don’t want to use flatbread, round pizza crusts will cook quickly on a super hot grilling surface. If you heat the grill up, you can cook the crust quickly and will get a nice crisp crust that is tender and chewy on the inside. 

One of the drawbacks of cooking on the grill is that there is no top heat source. The heat obviously only comes from the bottom, which means you can switch on the broiler to melt the cheese at the end. Instead, put the cheese on first, to make sure that it melts nicely against the crispy crust. Add tomato sauce in dollops on top of the cheese. Lastly, add your toppings. Because the pizza cooks so quickly on the grill and has not top heat source, you will need to ensure that your toppings are pre-cooked and added to the sauce while hot. For example, fry up your sausage on a side burner of the grill and add it after the cheese and sauce have topped the crust. This is also true for veggie toppings that need to be softened up like spinach, mushrooms or green peppers. If you like crisp edges on your pepperoni or ham, you will have to cook them to get those edges before topping the pie. For many pizza lovers, having to take the extra work with the toppings is worth it in order to get the crispy crust.

Perhaps the most important tip for grilling a good pie on your backyard BBQ is to make sure all of the elements are in place before you begin. The crust will cook in under a minute and everything else melts to perfection so quickly that it is important you are prepared. Once it all comes together, the pizza is a delicious addition to any summer evening. Don’t forget about grilling in the winter too!